The above is our mooring for the evening of Thursday 17 April just past the Hazelhurst aqueduct built in 1841 when the Leek arm was built and the route to Froghall was re-aligned. It was also our only sighting of the sun during our visit to the Caldon where we have had high winds and cloud all the time and 6 layers of clothing on most of the time.The weather though has not distracted from the industrial history or scenery of the canal. In the 1850's 200,000 tonnes of limestone was transported by canal which represented 30 boats a day every day.
Total to date is 3 cappuccino's(still), 4 swing bridges, 58 locks and 161 miles
Spring despite the weather is here as we saw loads of swallows yesterday.
This canal provides water for the Trent & Mersey canal from several reservoirs including the
Rudyard near Leek which gave Kipling his christian name.
We met Jeff and Sylvia today who have a friend at Endon whose grandfather owned the firm that took the last load of coal by horse boat from Stockton Brook to Cheddleton Mill in the mid 1930s.
